Hail, "Heil!"

If you haven't noticed, which I'm sure you have - Rock N Roll Rentals is now carrying Heil microphones. The creator, Bob Heil, is really giving the big brands a run for their money with the release of his extraordinary line of dynamic microphones. I was able to experiment with the PR-40 while tracking local punk-alternative band, "Cannibal Barbie" at Werd Recording Suite.
At first feel, the mic's build and weight gave claim of an undeniably great product. The solid capsule coupled with a dense grille could even make certain GmbH microphone manufacturers jealous of it's resilience. Now, where to put it?

First came the drums. The large diaphragm, and the likeness to the Electro-Voice RE-20 begged for me to put it on the kick drum, but I did not.  I was already very content with my Audix D6/Shure SM7b combination - and, let's be honest, we all know where we like that huge pickup; the snare. But why? I always enjoy capturing a full sound of the snare drum, moving away from things like SM57s, MD421s, or similar products. This is not to discount the awesomeness engrained in the workhorse dynamic mics, but we as engineers seem to always feel the craving to have our own "sound" for future generations to use the "[your name here] miking technique." In a bluegrass, jazz, or soft rock situation, I would be tempted to even use a large diaphragm condenser such as the Neumann TLM 103, but with a piccolo snare being whipped like a racehorse, no amount of padding on my signal chain would bear the intensity of the cracks - not to mention the intense bleed of the accompanying noisemakers. The resulting recording of the snare was actually not surprising at all. This is NOT a bad thing - it sounded like a dynamic mic should on a drum. The big plus was the addition of some low end - thickening the snappy sound of the snare. The lateral rejection capability of this mic was a little weak, but not disappointing. I was pleasantly satisfied with the track - but not done yet.

The following day, we tracked vocals. Again, I had to steer away from the large diaphragm condenser because of their susceptibility to harshness on loud or screaming vocals. Furthermore, we have all seen Thom Yorke's shrill mouth literally eating the end-cap of the RE-20, so I felt the need to try the dynamics on these vocals. Just in case, I put alongside the Shure SM7b as a safety precaution. I realized while setting up, the PR-40 would be much more diverse in its capabilities had it high-pass and/or 'presense' options on it (as the SM7b has). After review of the 'game tape,' I actually ended up sticking with the SM7 for these vocals. My reasoning was - the vocalist's nasally lyrics did not play well with the frequency response of the PR-40. It was a VERY close call. I even considered using both and blending the two, but in the end, the PR-40 did not make the cut for these tracks.

In the end, had I not another mic to compare to, I would have easily kept and been highly satisfied with the sound of the PR-40. At a $21/month rental rate though - really - you MUST use this mic.


Written by Audio Engineer/Producer Ali Ramzanali

The New U (...67 copy, that is)

On review today is the Peluso P67, modeled after the famous vintage (discontinued, and thus wildly expensive) Neumann U-67. It's not uncommon for well-maintained 67's to sell for upwards of $10,000. Until John Peluso spent over 2 years on the p67 to get it just right, attaining its signature sound (think the Beatles' Revolver, Bob Dylan, Chris Cornell's Soundgarden tenure, Kurt Cobain on "Nevermind", among many, many, many others) - meant shelling out big bucks in an expensive studio or, if you were lucky enough to live in L.A., New York, or Nashville, renting one for nearly the price of a month's mortgage payment.

Fortunately for us, Peluso Microphone Labs put in the time with several great u-67 specimens and tweaked the p67design til it closely matched the original, creating a mic that holds its own in shootouts with the best of engineer-ears.

The original u67 finds its use primarily on vocals, acoustic guitar, and less often (though no less spectacularly) on electric guitar cabs. I can't really describe with words what it does to the sound, but as this is a blog, I'll try...and you can listen to clips below.

It seemed to be that vocally (clips 1 and 2), it captured about what I'd expected - a nice low end, detailed midrange, and a crispy but not overhyped high end. In terms of high end, I'd put it somewhere between a u47 and a c12 (or for existing Peluso fans, a 2247 and p12). The midrange is where I really sensed something unique. Interesting handling of the critical 400-600 range, and a very unique sounding upper midrange. While the response is spec'd as mostly "flat", we all know the human voice is anything but, and putting several vocalists in front yielded a consistently unique, interesting EQ curve.

The mic was dense in the midrange, with a particular emphasis in the 500 region (a region typically reserved for things that occupy the "front" of a mix), and around the forward sounding 2k region, which would ordinarily yield a very "forward" sounding vocal track, if not for the interesting phasing/compression characteristics. More on this later. There was a high frequency air present as well which began its rolloff somewhere around 8k. In many ways, this is a "midrangey" mic, not boasting the warm, resonating low end and bright, airy high end of the p12. The clips of the acoustic are a great indicator of the low and high end differences (clips 3 and 4).

Most fascinating was the mic's tendency to sound somewhat compressed already, even filtered in a way. Some reading and novice examination of the u67 schematic shows several negative feedback loops, which without getting overly technical, loops the signal back in to earlier parts of the circuit, resulting in phase cancellation at certain frequencies and gives things a very unique color and a somewhat "squished" sound. (The forward, fast, "spanky" sound of a Vox AC-30 is primarily due to its LACK of negative feedback loops. The bloom and compression heard in many Two-Rock amps, particularly the John Mayer signature head, are the result of carefully tuned negative feedback.) The tube only accentuates this tendency toward compression, resulting in a sound similar to fast attack, medium release settings on a compressor...a sound known to push things "back" in a mix. This all comes together to bring us a mic that sounds detailed and forward EQ-wise without being difficult to place into the mix. Given the desire for compressed vocal sounds, it's no wonder 67 microphones are all over modern rock records.

I was most pleasantly surprised when I decided, given its interesting midrange, to try it on electric guitar cabs. No matter what sound came out of the amp, the resulting signal (again through the neutral FMR RNP) had an unmistakable vintage, retro vibe to it, a certain throatiness (due to its handling of the 500hz range) that perfectly accentuated the sounds of a Gretsch ( see clips 5 and 6) or Telecaster.

Needless to say, next time I need to record an edgy or aggressive vocal track or am in need of a vintage "vibe" to my guitar tracks, I will be reaching for Peluso's p67. You can do so as well at Rock n Roll Rentals, for $45 (weekend rate, Tuesday to Monday) or $100 bucks for the month.  

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by Colin Laflin